12 comments

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  Peter Calabria

  11 months ago

  The Skinny on Matthew Murray and the Church Shootings in Colorado.
  
  As to Matthew Murray’s murders at the Youth with a Mission and at the church, the notion that the son of a powerful and very devout Christian physician, who was home taught in born again religious fashion and has nothing but a traffic ticket to indicate any prior rebelliousness at his relatively old age of 24, raises great suspicions. The more likely possibility is that Matthew Murray was primed by his parents and/or other religious controllers to be a martyr for the born-again Christians, his mayhem in Colorado Springs and Arvada now being a “burning of the Reichstag” justification for fundamentalist conservatives to crank up to a considerably higher level of repression and control in the United States...
  
  To read more on this, go to www.matrix-evolutions.com
  
  Recommend this site to your friends.
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  Karoli

  11 months ago

  Peter --
  
  I don't think so. It serves no purpose for him to be a martyr, especially when he made it abundantly clear that he did not align himself with his parents', YWAM, or New Life church. He was a person who was depressed, angry and bitter over a long-ago rejection, that's all.
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  Amy Gahran

  11 months ago

  Karoli, thnaks so much for this thoughtful post. I thought your observations would be useful to journalists, so I included excerpts from your post and linked to it today on Poynter's E-Media Tidbits:
  
  http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=134357
  
  - Amy Gahran
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  Karoli

  11 months ago

  Amy,
  
  Thank you! It's one of those problems that seems to have no solution. I was glad to see you point out that journalists should be really careful about how they portray that community -- they really are very careful to try and keep things positive and moving forward.
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  Michael J

  11 months ago

  Great research, I can tell you put some major time into this thanks.
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  Karoli

  11 months ago

  Thank you, Michael!
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  Liz Ditz

  11 months ago

  This whole story is nothing but tragic. He was clearly mentally ill five years ago, but was not directed toward treatment, just turned away from his community.
  
  I do not know the theology of these two groups, but they may not accept mental illness, viewing these behaviors as "possession" or the like.
  
  Via Box Turtle Bulletin
  
  CNN:
  
  http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/10/shooter.youth/...
  
  

  
  Matthew Murray was kicked out of a missionary training program five years ago for strange behavior, and talked about hearing voices, according to a man who served at the center with him.
  [snip]
  Richard Werner, 34, said Monday he was a worker at the center in Arvada, Colorado, in 2002, the same time as Murray.
  
  He said Murray was told in December 2002 he would not be allowed to join a mission trip to Bosnia. That was five days after Murray performed a pair of dark rock songs at a concert at the mission that made fellow workers "pretty scared," according to Werner.
  
  The performance -- which included a song by rock band Linkin Park and another that had been recorded by controversial rocker Marilyn Manson -- followed months of strange behavior, Werner said.
  
  Werner, of Balneario Camborius, Brazil, said he had a bunk near Murray's and that Murray would roll around in bed and make noises.
  
  "He would say, 'Don't worry, I'm just talking to the voices,' " Werner said. "He'd say, 'Don't worry, Richard. You're a nice guy. The voices like you.' "
  

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  Karoli

  11 months ago

  Liz,
  
  In 2002, he was 19. This is the problem with our mental health/medical system, because once they're 18, no one can DO anything beyond suggest that one seek help. His posts on the forums indicate that he was in some kind of therapy (I don't know what, specifically), but as time goes on, his anger turns on the therapists too.
  
  He is exactly the type of person who should have been placed on a 72-hour hold, except that no one had standing to go forward and force it. Possibly his parents, but it sounds like they are pretty toxic in their own right.
  
  I'm not sure what the whole YWAM story was. I've had some personal experience with them that runs counter to what I've read on the ex-Pentecostal forum and Murray's own experience.
  
  Here's the other thing no one knows at this point -- were drugs involved? His rapid deterioration suggests that it's a possibility.
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  Joel Sax

  11 months ago

  I do think there's something here....But what could anyone do?
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  Liz Ditz

  11 months ago

  Liz Ditz here, I haven't signed into your new commenting software.
  
  Karoli, just to make your blood pressure rise
  
  Carpetbagger Report covers the religious right's response to this tragedy. As you might expect, it is the liberal's fault.
  
  Religious Right Exploits Tragedy for Political Gain
  
  "Yesterday, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins blamed the “secular media” for Matthew Murray’s shooting rampage in Colorado"
  
  and, quoting Gary Bauer:
  
  "Second, despite his upbringing, he was clearly motivated by an intense hatred for Christians, just as the Virginia Tech murderer was. In his last online message, Murray reportedly wrote, “You Christians brought this on yourselves. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world.” It is worth noting that this hatred of Christians is constantly promoted by the radical Left - on their websites and in their books, articles etc."
  
  Gah. That's me gagging up here.
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  Karoli

  11 months ago

  Hi Liz,
  
  No worries, you don't have to sign in to comment. It just remembers you if you sign in. :)
  
  As for my blood pressure, if I keep seeing articles like this they're going to have to put me on meds. Seriously.
  
  What bothers me the most about this (and Tony Perkins is one of the current worst, BTW) is the complete knee-jerk response with an absence of thought, consideration, or basic research. And yes, it also bothers me that it's entirely political. If the fundamentals were to take a biblical approach on this, they'd be absolutely apolitical. After all, Jesus said "do as the Romans do", not "become a Roman".
  
  These guys use Christianity to garner power for themselves. It is not a question of evangelism, or altruism. It's all about forcing others to their point of view. And it drives me nuts.
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• 

  bastard

  2 months ago

  you're a stupid fuck, you insult him by this posting, but alas, at least someone still takes time to remember him, somehow.
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